"No Direction in Life" Book List

This is my complete February Reading List - sorry to post so late.  Check out my March Reading List which I plan to post by March 8^th.

·    New Release : The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet, by Reif Larsen; Penguin Press 2009.  What better way to find my direction than by reading a book about a boy cartographer?

·    Classic: Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift; The Easton Press, 1976.  This was the only book that T.S.’s great-great-great grandfather read other than the bible.

·    Nonfiction: You Are Here: Personal Geographies and Other Maps of the Imagination, by Katherine Harmon, Princeton Architectural Press, October 1, 2003.  T.S. mapped his personal geographies from how to climb a mountain to shake hands with God, to the flow of dinner conversation at home, to his top-nine favorite movies and their thematic relationships.  A great way to discover my own personal geography.

·    Juvenile: S is for Smithsonian: American’s Museum Alphabet, by Marie and Roland Smith, Illustrated by Gijsbert van Frankenhuyzen; Sleeping Bear Press, 2010.  T.S. is going to the Smithsonian to receive the Baird Award.  I thought this alphabet book would be too easy for my seven- and nine-year olds, but I soon found that even I had a lot to learn from the informative text.  Fascinating stuff.

·    Self-improvement:  Maps of the Imagination: The Writer as Cartographer, by Peter Turchi; Trinity University Press, 2004.  Turchi, a writer, uses the extended metaphor of writing as mapping the world of story. 

You might also want to check out a couple of cool blogs that are related to T.S.’s love of maps and charts and Larsen’s wonderful story:

• http://ilovecharts.tumblr.com/ - This is a forum where people submit cool charts for your reading pleasure.  One of the blog authors, Jason Oberholtzer, will begin a new blog on March 1 called Charts and Leisure on Forbes.com. 
• http://bigthink.com/blogs/strange-maps  - This is a blog by Frank Jacobs, who also wrote a book called Strange Maps: An Atlas of Cartographic Curiosities. 
• http://www.si.edu/Exhibitions - This is the Smithsonian’s official web site.  Check out the virtual exhibitions.
• http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jan/28/jonathan-swift-letters-stella-baby-talk/ - An interesting article about author of Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift.  Apparently, he was quite the player and enjoyed using infantile terms of endearment for his ladies.  Jonathan, you schmoopy!
• http://tsspivet.com/ - This is the official web site for The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet.  This site puts as much love and care into the virtual world as Larsen put into the novel.  Click on the crank on the right side of the box to view items in the collector’s case.  Neat-o.